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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Team 1, Day 2 in Ethiopia

We had a great day 2 in ET!!

Check out these sheep that we will be giving out soon, thanks to so many of you :)

Did I mention what a great team this is?

I love that we don't even leave for our destination without them all interacting with the street children right outside our gate of the guest home. They have all made some great new friends. Those same smiling faces are there everyday....standing....waiting for our guest home doors to open.

Check out the most awesome trip guides in the world!! If you have followed this blog for very long then you recognize the familiar faces of Bizzy and Maste. I wouldn't go anywhere without them.

The first place we went for the day was to Yezelelem Minch. It is a program that feeds and cares for street children and some of those in the community that struggle. They also have an orphanage. This place was especially great for Zack because he got to meet his sweet sponsored child for the first time.

We then walked over to the place where they have their feeding program and got to meet some of the kids and help and play games with them.

Rachel got put in the middle in duck duck goose.

Everyone made lots of new friends.

This is a wonderful feeding program that brings hope to so many.

Some of the guys headed to the field for a game of soccer.

Elizabeth made some friends along the way too.

Go Maste!

What a special time for Zack and a wonderful morning for OH with these sweeties at Yezelalem.

Next we headed over to Restoration. I had to post this pic and show all of you Brentwood folks this boy we stopped on the street. He was a sponsored Korah kid and had on a Brentwood Academy jersey just walking down the road. I think he said his sponsors name is Chris?? I can't really remember, sorry. But he knew exactly who it was. The world gets smaller everyday :)

Restoration is really mind blowing compared to what I saw the last time I was there. It was so amazing to walk through that place, knowing what a difference so many of you have made in the lives of these kids because of your donations and support. A million times, thank you!! The kids looked soooo much better. The little baby I have posted a partial pic of in the past that looked like a skeleton has gained weight and looks great, along with so many of them! Thanks to your support and Ashli over there on the ground, lives are being changed.

The team LOVED these kids. These kids have so much love that just pours out of them.

I got to give two waiting sisters a gift that someone had put together and sent for them. These two sisters have been waiting a long time. They see so many come and go and get gifts from their soon to be families and the reality is that it is never them. So a sweet blog follower sent them a gift along with a couple of others and they just lit up! They loved their new things and it was very special to them.

One of them gave me a big hug to thank me. Now we just need to find them a family.

Everyone on the team connected with the kids in different ways.

It was great to see Ashli in action, pouring out her love to these sweet kids. What a calling this girl has on her life!

Sweet Sammy was there ready to serve us some coffee. This was the boy that Ashli met last year on our trip, living on the streets. She has since sponsored him and he is her little side kick.

He is the cutest kid and starts school in the fall.

We all enjoyed our time at Restoration, especially me, knowing the huge difference and all the lives being drastically changed. I can't thank Ashli enough for making sure their needs are being met. I asked her what was one of the current needs and she mentioned needing an ongoing budget for a driver. She takes all these kids to the Dr regularly, especially the 15 or more babies she has there currently. She wants to start taking them on field trips once a week to get them outside the 4 walls they remain in. If you would like to give monthly or one time for her driver budget that would be awesome. You can go to the donate tab on our right sidebar and type in driver fund in the memo line and tell us if it is one time or monthly. Any type of support for that will be a blessing to her.

We went back to the guest house for the guys to shower before dinner. Clay ended up passing out jerseys to the street boys outside our gate. They couldn't have been more thrilled.

Deborah got her pic with them as well, and then Zack ran into one of his friends he had been hanging with before the team arrived that was so glad to see him.

We ended the night at an awesome restaurant. Food that tastes good to Americans here is hard to come by, but everyone really enjoyed this place.

Thanks for following along on our exciting Ethiopia team adventures. Next blog post is Day 3...Beza Church, street soccer, market and dinner with some of our sponsored kids and my son's birth family. Great things ahead!!

Audey, now Pat and I understand why you wanted to participate in this mission. God has sent the right team to bring joy and love to these children! It is heartbreaking on one hand, but a blessing to see what a difference your team makes in their lives!

Hi!! We adopted last September from Ethiopia. I have been following your blog because I want to go on a trip with Ordinary Hero in the future. Is Zach's friend's name Sammy?? I think he was our driver when we were there. We stayed at the Ethiopia Guest House across from the school. Also what is the youngest age that you would recommend for one of your trips?? Our daughters will be 12 and 14 next summer and I would love for them to come too. God bless you for your incredible work..... Shannon